


We Dream Impossible Dreams

by sunsetmagnolia



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mentions of alcohol, Song: Starlight (Taylor Swift), very mild angst perhaps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28768974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetmagnolia/pseuds/sunsetmagnolia
Summary: The group dissipates and Alex takes a sip of his drink. “This is going weirdly well.”“Yeah, who knew you could act?”Alex frowns and pulls his arm back to himself. “I’m a star, Jack. I’ve been in a movie.”“I was in that movie too. It wasn’t great.”“But I was great. I was the star.”
Relationships: Jack Barakat/Alex Gaskarth
Comments: 7
Kudos: 17





	We Dream Impossible Dreams

**8:05 pm**

“Ah, of course, you must be the dignitary from Prince Edward Island.”

Jack watches with a mixture of awe and pure disbelief as Alex shakes hands with the man with the fancy mustache. “Prince Edward himself,” Jack says, earning him a look from Alex over his shoulder that yells _don’t blow this for us_. Luckily, after a short moment, the man laughs.

“Always a jokester, this one,” Alex says, shaking his head. Jack hopes the man can’t sense the obvious relief in Alex’s posture that he didn’t see through them immediately. A few more pleasantries exchanged and the man lets them walk onto the yacht. “What the fuck did I tell you about being quiet until we got in?” Alex whispers as soon as they’re past the man.

“I can’t believe you got away with that. You didn’t even wait for him to ask your name.” He knows Alex is a decent actor when he wants to be, especially when it comes to lying with a straight face. It’s gotten them both into and out of trouble so many times.

“A _dignitary_ wouldn’t wait to be asked his name,” Alex says, straightening his suit coat.

“A _dignitary_ wouldn’t be sneaking onto a boat on a night off.”

“You were into the idea back at the hotel.”

“Yeah, when I thought you were joking.”

“That’s not my fault.”

**11:45 pm**

Jack has been looking back and forth between the dark waves and the golden lights of the party inside the windows for what seems like hours. It can’t possibly be that long, because he knows with no doubt that Alex wouldn’t leave him alone for that long in a place where neither of them know anyone. Then again, every time he turns around Alex is surrounded by different people, laughing and mingling like he’s meant to be there. He’s pleasantly tipsy himself, but something about keeping up this façade has him too nervous to get fully drunk. If he regrets it later, there’s always a bar back at the hotel.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been leaning against the railing, watching lights in the distance float back and forth. They’re not that far from land, but far enough that the city lights are faint and glittery rather than anything resembling buildings. Every now and then, a smaller boat goes by at a safe distance and he can imagine what they think when they see a boat full of glammed-up people in the middle of the night. He feels like he and Alex switched places somewhere between there and here, to make Alex the life of the party and Jack the wallflower, staring up at the cloudy sky until the horizon line is almost nonexistent.

The clouds part enough for him to see one single star, and he trains his eyes on it until he feels someone’s hand over his on the railing, warm against the cool breeze.

“The people are wondering where my loving fiancé went.”

Jack closes his eyes and smiles a little, but he doesn’t really have an answer.

“What are you doing out here by yourself?” Alex asks, shifting his hand so his fingers fit between Jack’s.

“It’s not really my crowd,” he says honestly. “I don’t want to say something wrong and blow our cover.”

“Please, what are they gonna do now? Throw us in yacht jail?”

“Throw us overboard?”

“They’re not pirates. We won’t have to walk the plank no matter what dumb thing you say.” Alex is grinning, but Jack is past being able to match his energy. “Hey, you know you don’t have to keep pretending to be a rich politician, right?”

Alex’s hand on his is making him feel grounded at sea, but also like he’s caught fire and the only way to put himself out would be to pull away. “No, I know.”

“You don’t have to come back inside if you don’t want to, but I don’t want to leave you out here all alone.” Alex squeezes his hand before letting him go, taking a step back. It’s an invitation to follow him in, or to ask him to stay, but Jack doesn’t really want to do either.

“I’ll come inside in a little bit.”

Alex’s face falls just a little before he catches it and smiles softly. He turns and goes back inside, leaving Jack feeling like he’s frozen to the floor. What he really wants is to pull Alex to the upper deck with a couple glasses of champagne and face the cool air head-on, to say yes he’s tired of pretending but it has nothing to do with all those other people and more to do with how easy it was to fall into a lie in front of them, and one lie in particular.

**8:13 pm**

“Alexander, you are hysterical,” a woman in a glittery blue dress is saying through laughter. Jack isn’t sure why he’s calling himself Alexander, though he has to admit it does sound a little more sophisticated than Alex. Jack is just going by Jack, it seems, from the way Alex keeps introducing him. They’ve been inside for five minutes and this is already the second group of fancy people Alex has introduced himself to. Aside from the man who let them onto the boat, no one seems interested in titles or job descriptions, which puts Jack at ease. He still feels massively unqualified to be here, especially since he would have nearly nothing in common with them even on land. It’s only mitigated by Alex’s arm around his waist, keeping him in place instead of wandering around and undoubtedly saying something to reveal he’s not meant to be there.

The group dissipates and Alex takes a sip of his drink. “This is going weirdly well.”

“Yeah, who knew you could act?”

Alex frowns and pulls his arm back to himself. “I’m a star, Jack. I’ve been in a movie.”

“I was in that movie too. It wasn’t great.”

“But _I_ was great. I was the star.”

Jack laughs. “You’re good at dressing up and looking good and doing fancy things with fancy people. You keep trying to plan wine and cheese nights with charcuterie boards. I don’t even know what goes on those except cheese.”

“Nuts, cold cuts, maybe some jelly, fruit slices—”

“Proving my point.”

“Excuse me, Alexander, was it?” a man with a British accent interrupts them. “Cynthia here was telling me you tell quite a story. You’re well-traveled?”

“I’d say so,” Alex says. He smiles at the woman – Cynthia – who had been part of the first group they’d stopped to talk to. Alex had modified a story for her from their last European tour where he’d saved someone’s hat from flying off the Eiffel Tower. It was a real thing that had happened, but he made it sound much more cinematic, as he usually did when he told stories.

Jack looks around the room and is suddenly grateful they’d gone to an awards show at the beginning of tour, which meant they still had their suits on them. One quick steaming and they were ready to go again. He starts to think it’s a miracle they haven’t been caught yet, after being at an event that big, but it was for music after all, and these people seem far too proper to listen to All Time Low, or any of the other current-day acts who had gone to the show. They hadn’t performed or anything, so if none of these people watched any interviews, they’d be easy enough to miss. Jack’s mind centers back on the conversation happening in front of him where Alex is currently finishing up a story from the last time they were in Japan, where the head of their label there had taken them to a ninja café.

“You see, Penn, I told you he was charming.” Cynthia smiles at Alex and then turns to Penn.

“That you did, darling.” He turns back to Alex. “You must tell me next time you’re in town, we’d love to have you both over for tea.”

“Oh, of course, I almost forgot to introduce Jack.” Alex’s hand finds its way back around Jack’s waist. “This is my fiancé.” Alex leans his head against Jack’s shoulder for a second, and Jack prays he can’t hear the way his heartbeat loses all sense of rhythm.

“How sweet,” Cynthia coos. She says more, but Jack can barely make out the words above his pulse in his ears. He hopes he’s holding a poker face, but he can feel his cheeks getting warmer and warmer. He also hopes no one is trying to say anything to him, because it’s all he can do to stay upright.

Cynthia and Penn wish them well and walk away, and Alex snorts a laugh behind his glass. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have lied to them but we’re already lying, what’s one more?” Alex holds his glass up and Jack meets it halfway in a cheers, but he’s still stuck on where this lie came from, let alone why he added it to the story.

**10:31 pm**

Jack is being spun around the room, and he’s never been more grateful to be mostly sober because between the dancing and the ocean, he’s surprised he’s not more dizzy. Part of it has to do with the way Alex’s hands are at his waist, pulling him in circles to the jazzy music that he’s pretty sure he’s never heard before. Alex has talked to most of the crowd by now, which means they all think he and Jack are engaged, so there’s nothing stopping them from dancing as closely as they want. The only way Jack can describe the way they’re moving is that they’re slow dancing, but faster. Neither of them particularly know what their feet are doing, but they’ve managed not to step on each other so far.

“I told you we’d have fun,” Alex pulls him closer and whispers in his ear.

“I believed you,” Jack replies, and it’s true. Despite their poor acting, a night with Alex is guaranteed to be a good time, and this is no exception.

Jack slows them to a stop when the song changes, catching his breath, but Alex just moves his hands up so they’re clasped behind Jack’s neck. It’s more of a question than a demand, a request to stay on their feet for one more song, but Jack has never been able to deny Alex anything. At least not anything like this.

**9:00 pm**

An announcement comes on over the crackly loudspeaker that the yacht will be leaving the port, and Alex grabs Jack’s hand and pulls him out the door onto the open deck outside. Jack follows helplessly behind as they make their way to the front of the boat, where they can see the nose of the boat breaking waves as they pull away from the dock and start floating out to sea. Every time the boat dips slightly, they can feel the salt water spray up onto their faces and hands.

“Hey look, there’s Mars.” Alex is pointing to the sky, where clouds are starting to gather. Jack can’t tell what he’s pointing at, but he’s endeared as always by Alex’s space knowledge. Alex looks at him. “Tell me you’re not regretting letting me drag you out here. Here on the boat, not just here outside where it’s cold.”

Jack could say there’s not a single place Alex could drag him where he wouldn’t go willingly, just by virtue of Alex being there. Instead he just smiles. “No ragrets, baby.”

Alex laughs. “Best fiancé ever. I’m so glad we got engaged.”

“You never asked if I wanted to marry you,” Jack says.

“Oh, what, you don’t?” I’m a catch.”

“Maybe I want a little more romance than that.”

“Well I’m not wearing any rings, so I don’t know what you want from me.”

“You could start by asking?” Jack says. He doesn’t know what he’s arguing for. If this is all part of the joke they’re playing on everyone else – and he has to keep reminding himself it is – then he shouldn’t care whether Alex asked him or not, and definitely not out here where they’re alone with no one to lie for. And if this isn’t a joke, Jack would hope he’s above begging for a proposal. He watches Alex frown and pretend to think about it before dropping to one knee on the floor, one hand on the railing so he doesn’t fall over when the boat rises over another wave.

“Jack Barakat, you’ve been my best friend for more than twenty years. You’re the brightest thing in this cloudy English sky, and the best person in every room you let me talk you into sneaking into. I want to keep you in my life forever. Will you marry me?”

Jack is not allowed to actually think about this, or else he’ll actually think about this. He takes a mental snapshot anyway. Alex reaches his free hand out to Jack. If this was real, Jack would be close to tears. But it’s not real, so he can’t be. He crosses his arms. “Fine, I guess.”

“You guess,” Alex says, pulling himself back up to stand. “You’d be lucky to marry me.”

Jack knows he would be, in fact he knows it so strongly he wishes he could take back his answer and answer again more sincerely, just to see what Alex would do next.

“I really just wanted to see us set sail,” Alex says. “We can go back inside.” Jack is still stuck for what to say, even though Alex has clearly moved on from the joke so he should too. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just don’t have my sea legs yet.”

“Don’t you dare get seasick,” Alex says. He reaches out anyway to support Jack by the waist as they walk back toward the party.

**11:03 pm**

Someone asked them how they got together, and Jack felt like he would implode if he had to keep hearing Alex talk about their fake relationship, so he’s standing by the bar, sipping a glass of wine as slowly as possible so he doesn’t accidentally get to the other side of tipsy where he accidentally tells people he’s not really engaged, or worse, where he accidentally tells Alex he really wants to be.

He still has his eyes on Alex across the room. The lights seem to fall on him naturally, making him quite literally the center of attention. Years of being in the spotlight on stage make him practically unaware that he’s standing in a golden circle while everyone else gathers around him, but this type of performance is already beyond any type of pretending he has to do on stage. This is more than just faked confidence until it feels real. This is almost unbelievable.

Every time Alex reaches up to fix his hair, Jack has to fight the urge to go over and hold his hand, because once is self-conscious but a hundred times is a nervous habit. Jack wishes he could go over and ask what’s bothering him so much. It would be a perfectly reasonable thing to do through the eyes of anyone else in the room, but between the fake engagement and the fake everything else, he has to draw a line for himself, or else he’ll fall into the lie just like everyone else and it’ll only be that much harder to remind himself it’s not real the moment they’re back at the hotel.

One of the women from earlier in the night walks up to him after she gets her drink. “Jack, right?” Jack can’t place her accent, something generally European.

“Yes?”

“Amelie. We met earlier.” She shakes his hand gently and then turns around to look out at the crowd. “Your fiancé is something. You’re lucky to have each other.” Jack gives her a quizzical look and she holds up her left hand. “I’ve been hinting at getting married for almost a year and my boyfriend is too thick to get it.” It’s only then that Jack notices she’s not wearing a ring. He glances at Alex, catches him in the middle of a stunning smile, and decides _fuck it._

Jack holds up his left hand too. “I didn’t get a ring with my engagement. Someone was too much of a romantic to think it through.”

“He didn’t mention that part,” she says with a smile.

“He likes to leave that part out,” Jack says. He almost starts talking about how they got engaged on a yacht just like this, but realizes Alex may have told her a completely different story. “It makes him look impulsive.”

“That is romantic though.” She sighs.

“Yeah, he is.”

“It’s obvious how much you love him.”

He wants to ask _how obvious_ , and _is it obvious in a way that makes him a good actor or can everyone tell he’s not pretending?_ He smiles and hopes whatever is going on in his head doesn’t translate to his face. “I really do.”

Amelie holds her glass up. “Cheers to love.”

Jack clinks glasses with her and resolutely does not think about how that’s the first time he’s told the truth all night.

**10:10 pm**

Alex is on his third drink and Jack still slowly sipping on his second, so when Alex tries to get him a third and Jack refuses, he gets adorably pouty. They’re sitting at a tall table near a window, but with the glare from the lights inside and the darkness outside, there’s not much of a view. “I thought you were my fiancé,” Alex says, tilting his head.

“So that means I can’t finish this before I get another one?” Jack asks. He keeps trying to look out the window, but all he sees is Alex’s reflection smiling back at him.

“You’re no fun tonight. I want a divorce.”

“We’re not married yet.”

“Then I want the ring back.”

“You didn’t give me a ring.”

“Well what the fuck are we doing then?”

Jack has the same question.

“Hey.” Alex reaches out and grabs Jack’s hand across the table. “For real, you’re having fun, right?”

“Not as much fun as you, clearly.”

“I can think of a way to make it more fun.”

“You’re not getting me another drink yet.”

“Not that.” Alex lets go of his hand and walks around the table so he’s standing in front of Jack. “Kiss me.”

Jack would have choked on his drink if he’d been doing more than chewing on the straw. “How is that more fun?”

“Come on, everyone thinks we’re engaged. Don’t you want to make it more believable?”

“Maybe we’re too classy for PDA.”

“Or maybe we’re in love,” Alex says.

“Why can’t we be both?”

“We’re not.” He pauses. Jack has no response. “Please?”

They _are_ close enough that Jack would just have to lean forward a little, and Jack does want to, despite his logic trying to convince him of the opposite all night. He’s moments away from giving in and letting his eyes close when someone bumps into the table and their drinks knock over. Jack jumps up away from the table before the liquid can get on his clothes. He vaguely notices Alex look slightly disappointed before they both grab for their napkins and start mopping up the drinks, laughing off whatever almost happened.

**12:15 am**

It’s been 15 minutes since the captain had said over the speaker that they would be anchors up and heading back for the port at 12:30, and Jack is back outside. He went inside for a while, but it felt equally weird to be stuck to Alex’s side as it felt to be stuck to the wall, and he didn’t feel social enough to find himself a spot in the middle.

He’s back up at the front of the yacht, away from the lights but not the sounds. He’s hoping Alex isn’t worried about him, but he’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Taylor Swift’s voice comes floating out the doors every now and then when someone walks in or out. Jack hasn’t returned to watching the horizon out of any interest in counting ships or lights, but he has counted sixteen individual boats. He’s glad the party is ending soon, because he’s ready to go directly to bed and not worry about cleaning this suit again until he gets home at the end of tour. It may as well be covered in glitter with how ready he is to get out of it, but also how much he knows he won’t be able to forget this night for a long time.

He could have guessed Alex would find him eventually. Instead of asking if he’s okay, Alex just walks up and gives Jack a hug, leaning his head on Jack’s shoulder. “Long night, huh?” He stops, but Jack can’t tell if he’s waiting for an answer or not. “Are you as tired as me?”

“You’re _tired_? You’ve been having so much fun.”

“Yeah, I’ve been talking to strangers all night and they don’t even have music in common with me. It’s exhausting.”

“Should I remind you that this was your idea?”

“I wish you wouldn’t.” Alex sighs. “I’m sorry I pulled you into more than I said I would. I got caught up in how much fun it was. I should have asked you first.”

“No, you were having fun—”

“Yeah, but you weren’t.”

“I had fun.”

“Not as much fun as me, clearly,” Alex says, echoing Jack’s earlier words. “When we get back to the hotel, do you want to sleep in my room?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea after tonight.”

Alex lifts his head up. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing, I’m just tired.”

“What if I said I want you to sleep in my room?” Alex asks slowly, almost carefully, like he’s measuring Jack’s response to each word.

“We’ve been hanging out all night, you don’t want some time to yourself? You just said you were tired of being around people.”

“You’re not just people. You’re— you’re _my_ person. You’re my best friend.” He pauses and Jack turns his head to look at him. “I want to keep you around forever.”

“You meant that?” Jack asks quietly.

“Yeah.” Alex looks like he’s holding his breath. “I’m not _that_ good an actor.”

Jack laughs despite himself and Alex breaks a smile as well.

“Is that a yes?”

Jack turns to face Alex, feeling like the boat is already moving again. “What exactly am I agreeing to this time?”

“I’m not proposing yet, but I do love you. As much as everyone in that room thinks I do. Probably more.”

“Then I think it’s a yes.”

Alex smiles and pulls him closer, kissing him like they almost did earlier, but so much better.

“I love you too, by the way,” Jack says when they separate.

Alex just laughs and pulls him in again, and this time the floor feels unmistakably steady under their feet. The waves still send shimmering water droplets up over the bow, and the clouds clear away to reveal the stars above, but here on a boat in the middle of the night, Jack has never been more sure of anything in his life.


End file.
